Gallery: These buildings are made of … bamboo?

Plunge into the deep Balinese jungle and you might suddenly find a bamboo building soaring above you. Made from the frankly unlikely building material, the ethereal structures are the brainchildren of designer Elora Hardy and her team at Ibuku (TED Talk: Magical houses, made of bamboo). The one-of-a-kind houses are curving, magical and utterly stunning. Take a look.

Six floors of bamboo home

Sharma Springs, a private home in Sibang Gede in Bali, has four bedrooms and stretches over six floors. It’s one of the tallest bamboo buildings in Bali; its design is intended to make you think of the petals of a lotus flower. Photo courtesy of Rio Helmi.

Intricate, interwoven bamboo

This fifteen-meter tunnel (shown under construction) leads into the ground-level entrance of the Sharma Springs home. Things can get very complex when building with bamboo. Photo courtesy of Ibuku.